The Gorilla Smithiscuits Meet Quicksand

This video is insane. Seriously. It makes me want to put my head through a wall when the last few notes of "Start Today" end and the opening riff to "How Soon is Now" kicks in. Top notch from the crowd reaction to Walter's gyrations to Sergio getting in the groove. Total ampage.

Well I Wonder

iNow that the beaches in Strathmere are getting pumped, I wonder if they will turn to garbage for a while?

Is It Really So Strange?

The forecast for Saturday was looking good, but due to Maeve's birthday party, it was going to have to be a dawn patrol session or nothing at all. Despite the early rise, I knew that every spot would be overrun, so I decided to hide out a little bit to avoid the ever growing number surfing enthusiasts that populate the more crowded spots. These pictures were taken post-session, since there was little light when I paddled out. I had taken almost this exact picture after it snowed this winter:
Waist to chest and clean? Not exactly....more like the first three objects in the picture.
Trying to make art out of slop.
Flawless conditions:
I'm sure if I drove around I could have found a spot breaking better or waited until mid-morning, but unfortunately, I was on borrowed time. One bonus was watching two crazy girls yell on the beach, and then try to waive me down followed by one of them doing jumping jacks on the beach but lacking any pants. After all that, I felt this pretty much summed up my morning:
Luckily, while everyone was escaping the island Sunday night and headed up the AC expressway, I was able to sneak over for some leftovers that were kind of fun. I guess it's all in your perspective.

I Know By Now You Think I Should Have Straightened Myself Out...Thank you, Drop Dead

Even though Morrissey's Years of Refusal comes out this month, I think most people have heard it by now. If you haven't, go get it.

Hand in Glove

There were waves yesterday...well sort of. The forecasts were showing a small bump, but the cameras were showing what looked to be less than that and with the air temperature and lack of daylight, it was one of those days where I was really on the fence. I knew that if I didn't go, I wouldn't be missing much, if anything at all; but at the same time, I hadn't been out as much as I'd like, so I ended up grabbing my gear and headed over the bridge.

Although the days are starting to get longer, daylight is still at a premium, so its a race against sunset in the afernoons during the winter. After checking one spot and seeing how tiny it was, I drove around until I found a spot that still tiny but at least ridable. It was cold, but nothing too bad. Little wind, the air and water were probably both in the thirties. As I paddled out I suddenly felt a rush of water in one of my gloves...not good. This was the first time I used my thicker winter mittens to surf and it was very apparent that there was a hole somewhere in it. Each time I went to paddle, the glove would fill with icy salt water slowly numbing my hand and crawling up the sleeve of my wetsuit to chill my arm. Sitting out in the line-up, I studied the glove to find a nice puncture hole in the palm of the glove making the 5mm glove pretty much worthless. I surfed for about forty five minutes, which wasn't bad considering my hand was slowly turning into a claw. With the tide coming in, it looked as if the waves were inproving slightly, but my hand could take no more. Here is a post-session shot of the claw:

Meat is Murder

After doing about thirty seconds of searching on youtube, I found this great video of Scott Platt aka Meatstick surfing, well of all places, Surf Road. Here's to warmer temps: